Hello, welcome to another episode of Unpacking Neuroqueerness. In this episode,
I wanted to talk about something that I've been noticing more and more in the
last few weeks, months, even years, but I think particularly in the last few weeks
and months is the division that has been occurring among the autistic community,
amongst people, in between people that identify as low support needs and people
that identify as high support needs. Now, this conflict and division has been
going on for a while, but I feel like it's become more pronounced in the last
few weeks. So first of all, I wanted to speak of something called, and I've
spoken about this before in episode 51, but there's something out there that's
called ASPY supremacy, and I do understand the fact that there are a
lot of autistic folks with lower support needs out there that do not like to
call themselves disabled, and that is fine if they don't feel disabled by their
autism. However, the problem is they reiterate the idea to the world that
just because their autism doesn't disable them, they reiterate the idea that
autism is not a disability for anybody, which is not true for those with higher
support needs that may have more sensory issues that may require more
assistance, that may require a caretaker, that may not be able to live by
themselves or may have other needs in addition to those that I just stated,
that are in fact disabled by being autistic, and a big problem with that
is because if we tell society that autism is not a disability and that all
autistics are happy being autistic all the time, then society will not want to
provide accommodations. They'll see that as a way of not providing accommodations
because if being autistic is 100% great all the time, then there's no reason
for institutions such as schools and businesses to provide accommodations,
which is very harmful for the individuals that need those accommodations. So
that is the issue, that is a valid issue that has been happening with
autistics with lower support needs trying to speak for the
entire community and invalidating the higher support needs
autistics and also trying to distance themselves by saying that
they're not like the quote stereotypical autistics. Well these
autistics do exist and so it can erase one's experience by
saying that you're not like the so-called stereotypical autistics
because many autistics are like that and you are basically saying that they are
lesser or the idea that comes across is that certain
autistics are lesser than which is completely untrue. Every
autistic person is different and has their own experiences and experiences
different traits and different intensities and so this is also the
reason that I have mixed feelings around the support needs levels and of
course that is we use support needs levels to replace functioning
labels which are very harmful not only the fact that they're neurotypically
biased it's functioning to an idea of like based on an idea of
neurotypicality right on how well does an autistic person perform
neurotypicality and that is just very unfair for those high
maskers but because they get called like myself many times throughout my life
I've been called high functioning and it's just not fair for given the fact
that I have had to mask my autistic traits and been conditioned to mask my
autistic traits my whole life because I've been afraid of being misjudged and
ostracized by society and then it's really invalidating to be to be called
high functioning when you're you know masking through exhaustion every day
just to be not be seen as lesser and and low functioning of course assume it
invalidates the strengths and humanity of those who have higher support needs and
just need more structure and support around them in order to so-called
function in a neurotypical society it does not mean that there are low
functioning by nature they just require more support so that is where support
needs comes from and and I understand that it's a good replacement for
functioning labels however it can also be harmful because I also see it getting
thrown around like online like even amongst the artistic community like
other autistics will assume that someone has low support needs just because
they made a video online and they don't know they have no idea like who this
person actually is and what they've been through in their life and what
supports they require even to be there making that video in that moment I feel
like it's um and many others have expressed this to a harmful over
generalization when you see someone and call them low support needs just because
they made a video online and to me and in the opinion of many others as well and
can come across as ableist so in the same way that I feel like aspie
supremacy is very harmful and erases the experience of higher support needs
individuals and can de demean and dehumanize higher support needs
individuals and I think that's absolutely a problem that needs to be
addressed there's also the problem of people even within the artistic
community assuming that a certain person has low support needs just because they
make a video or write a statement online you still don't know like who this
person is and what their needs really are and what they may have been through
I also see a lot of misdirected anger around people that are self-diagnosed
there's this false conception this is false idea that people that are self
diagnosed because mind you a lot of people can't afford a formal diagnosis
and the DSM is based on presentations of autism and ADHD and young white males so
it excludes a huge population and so there's misdirected anger because
somehow people believe that self-diagnosed people are somehow taking
away resources from officially diagnosed people and so I just wanted to
remind everybody that this is a narrative that is constantly pushed by
neurotypicals it is wrapped in ableism and classism and it's a way of avoiding
taking responsibility for accommodating disabled people and also turning
autistic people against each other and pushing that that narrative which is
very harmful as if a narrative that basically tells you that if unless you
have a typical presentation of what most people believe that autism or ADHD is
supposed to look like that you cannot be considered autistic and then cannot be
consequently given support so I feel like it is a way of non-disabled society
to not see and not accommodate folks that are able to mask on a daily basis even
though it causes extreme exhaustion you know like that I feel like it's um it's
the fact that they can mask makes people want them to just keep masking so so they
can't provide so they so people can feel like they don't need to provide
accommodations oh because this person can mask because they're fine and a lot of
times they're not fine they're completely exhausted from having to mask over and
over or over again and that's why people are it's so important for many people to
get that late diagnosis and for a lot of people they're not able to get a
professional diagnosis mainly because of the cost and also because of like there's
still a lot of medical ableism and a lot of misinformation and I've heard
stories of people being told that they can't be autistic because they're in a
relationship or because they walked up a stair the stairs so there's this very
negative stigmatized view full of ableism of what autistics are quote-unquote
supposed to look like to many people and so I get frustrated that it seems like
neurotypicals are infiltrating infiltrating the autistic community and
spreading the misinformation and then somehow leading higher support needs
autistics to believe that lower support needs autistics would take away from
them by by asking for resources and accommodations where the real problem is
there are not enough the system the system does not provide enough resources
if there's only a little bit of juice in a cup and you have two kids arguing
over it it's not that one kid is taking away juice from the other it is that
there's not enough juice in the cup there the system is not providing enough
juice the system is not providing enough in the way of accommodations and support
for everybody and the different levels of different kinds of support that people
need and so I just wanted to remind everybody no one knows about an
experience better than the person living that experience many people can't
afford a diagnosis and this hurts this hurts undiagnosed people that do not
fit the white male stereotypes a lot of autistic women who've been masking their
entire lives and not knowing they were autistic and just thinking that there
was something wrong with them and not getting support and struggling and you
know a lot of times there are a lot of sadly a lot of a lot of times these
people have harmed themselves because they are not getting the understanding
and support they need so it's really harmful to you know when to call them
trendy or just like no one is doing this for attention like no one wants to have
to be to be growing up in the ableist society that we do as an autistic person
and the problem is not being autistic the problem is the people the problem is
the society and the bullying and the mistreatment and so we need to blame
the system for not providing these worried resources not people for so-called
taking away what taking them away or whatnot and I myself was led to believe
for a long time that I'd be taking away from others by asking for accommodations
and and because of how prevalent internalized ableism is in our society I
was really led to believe for that for believe that for a long time and I feel
like I didn't really embrace even though I was lucky to have a professional
diagnosis in age 16 I feel like I didn't really embrace that diagnosis and embrace
like oh okay this is what I need you know this is how my brain works and like I
need things done differently and like to to be able to ask for support sometimes
and and and then I later realized that it's actually the fault of the system
for not providing enough support for everyone it's not that I'm taking away
from people that's so-called deserve and more or whatever because I think that
everyone deserves the accommodations that they need and and you know this
whole contract of like who deserves it more or were not as like very rooted in
and ruining in your own normativity and capitalism and we shouldn't all be
forced to be birds turned against each other seeking for survival we need more
support we need the system to provide more support for everybody we need to
fight together for more support and resources and instead of fighting against
each other we need the system to provide more resources for everybody and and so I
hope that I hope that I got my points across in this episode I know it was
kind of a little bit all over the place but those are the main points that I
wanted to emphasize in this episode I just wanted to remind every autistic
person out there that you are valid no matter your background no matter your
support needs and let's let's be mindful that support needs can fluctuate on a
daily basis you can have high support needs one day and low support needs the
next day and obviously you know there are main things like there are
differences like people that are able to live alone and care for themselves and
and so-and-so and there are a lot of differences but one just one of those
things does not determine if you are always high support needs or you're
always low support needs support needs are still a very dynamic thing and I
think that's really important for people to understand and people I really
want everyone to to understand that they are valid and they do deserve support
and accommodations have being self-diagnosed formally diagnosed or
not diagnosed everyone deserves support and I feel like this all gets
mulled and broken into groups and like who deserves more and who deserves less
based on like how much support they appear to need and we have to remember
that what someone appears on the outside is not always what they are what they are
going through on the inside so I just wanted to remind everybody about that
once again I hope you enjoyed this episode I hope it was helpful for
everybody be me them near or typical or neurodivergent thank you for listening
and I will talk to you next time